Qatar-Syria reconciliation only ‘speculation’: Qatari PM

Posted on April 16, 2023 by uprootedpalestinians

April 14 2023

Unlike other Arab states, Qatar so far has refused reconciliation with Syria after taking a lead role in the US-backed war against Damascus in 2011

ByNews Desk

Newly appointed Qatari Prime Minister and long-time Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said that his country’s boycott of the Syrian government will continue and that talk of a possible normalization of relations between Qatar and Syria is “speculation.”

The prime minister’s comments came in an interview with state-run Qatar TV on Thursday evening, 13 April, in response to a question about “the ongoing talk about normalization with the Syrian regime and its return to the Arab League and the position of the State of Qatar on that,” according to the Qatar News Agency.

According to the agency, Sheikh Mohammed denied that reconciliation with Syria was on the table now, explaining, “This is speculation we see in the media, and Qatar’s position is clear.”

He explained further that “there were reasons for suspending Syria’s membership in the Arab League, and boycotting the Syrian regime at that time, and these reasons still exist, at least for us, it is true that the war has stopped, but the Syrian people are still displaced, and there are innocent people in prisons.”

Relations between Syria and Qatar were severed after numerous Arab states partnered with the US and Israel to sponsor an Al-Qaeda-dominated Salafist insurgency in Syria that began in 2011. Qatar, which was home to the headquarters of US military operations throughout West Asia, played an outsize role.

Previous Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani acknowledged that a security committee was established with representatives from the US, Saudi, Qatar, Turkey, and Jordan to coordinate the insurgency. Al-Thani notes that Qatar was in charge of this file in the early months of the conflict. Management of the file included support for the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in a war that killed hundreds of thousands.

Ten Arab countries, including Algeria, have declared official relations with the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, while 8 other countries, including Saudi Arabia, have reviewed the situation and are moving toward resuming ties.

Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of regional foreign ministers this week to discuss Syria’s return to the Arab League, a Qatari official said. Qatar has opposed Syria’s return to the Arab League, but according to foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari, an “Arab consensus” plus a “change on the ground” would shift Qatar’s position, Reuters reported on 12 April.

The meeting, which will involve the foreign ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait, will take place this Friday in the Saudi city of Jeddah on the Red Sea.